Atarashii Inochi
by zhelenstilo
Summary: A cross between a new miko and a reincarnated seishi fic... A US high schoo student gets sucked into the book to become the new miko... eventually will have shounen ai
1. prologue: Suzakusama's problem

**Author's Note:**

Well, this is my second serious try at fanfiction (my other FY fanfic here on fanfiction.net, Fushigi Ryuu, being the first). This one is a kind of cross between a "new miko" and a reincarnation fic. It takes place about 400 or so book years after the series, with a new miko and a bunch of reincarnated shichiseishi.

I'm also throwing in a little bit of my own ideas, with a cycle and stuff. Most of that is explained in the prologue.

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Fushigi Yuugi...though sometimes I wish I did. No characters mentioned in the prologue belong to me, though some of my original characters will be showing up eventually.

**Warning:**

No warnings for this chapter, but there will be shounen ai (guys who like guys) in the future, as well as Tasuki language.

* * *

**Atarashii Inochi**   
prologue: Suzaku-sama's problem...

Once upon a time there was a universe contained in a book. It was created by the great Taiitsu-kun(1), who continued to watch over the world from her spot high up on a mountain. There were also four gods to this world: Suzaku, Seiyuu, Genbu, and Byakko. They were all animals, though they also had very nice humanoid forms that many fangirls drooled over. And each god had seven warriors, called his shichiseishi, to serve him.

Every hundred years in the book, one teenaged girl from the real world would get sucked into the book to become a miko to one of the gods. That girl would collect the shichiseishi of her god (the four of them took turns getting mikos) and summon her god, who would then posses her body. Then she got three wishes from the god and was returned to her world.

The shichiseishi were humans. Well, humans with a little extra power. They lived and died like normal humans. What was special about them, besides the powers they had, was that they were reborn, over and over and over again. They changed bodies, and lives, but they always had the same soul, and so often ended up much the same each time. They were only reborn when it was getting close to the time of the coming of their miko though.

* * *

Then one time around in the cycle it was time for Suzaku no Miko to appear in the book. The chosen girl this time was a Japanese girl by the name of Yuuki Miaka, though why Suzaku chose her we'll never know. She was brought into the book, and her best friend Hongo Yui was sucked in as well.

Yui was promptly sent back as the mistake in bringing them both in was realized. But it was too late. Seiryuu, one of the other gods, had noticed her, and had decided to break the rules a little. He later brought her back in, as his own miko. It was only about a hundred years early…

Having two mikos in the book at one time caused problems, and caused a war to form between Suzaku's people, the empire of Konan, and Seiryuu's people, the empire of Kutou. Trickery and treachery occurred, and Miaka's first attempt to summon Suzaku ended up failing, because of a mistaken seishi.

In the end things were set straight, kinda. Miaka eventually did summon Suzaku, after all but two of her side's shichiseishi were killed. Seiryuu was summoned as well, and all of the Seiryuu shichiseishi were killed. And then both Miaka and Yui were returned to their world.

Oh, and Miaka fell in love with the Suzaku shichiseishi Tamahome. Normally this wasn't something that was allowed. It had happened between Byakko no Miko and one of the Byakko shichiseishi, Tatara, not too long before, and Byakko had had to deny their love. The problem was that when a miko fell in love with a shichiseishi she usually wanted him to come back to the real world with her, and that just wasn't good. The seishi needed to be in the book, so his soul could be reborn in a new body in time for the next miko.

Suzaku, unfortunately, was a softie for a good love story. When he possessed Miaka after she summoned him he realized just how much she loved Tamahome. And he decided to let them be together. Of course, because Tamahome was killed fighting Seiryuu, he was unable to be with her that way. Instead, his soul was reborn as Sukanami Taka, in the real world, and they got to be together that way.

Unfortunately, Suzaku didn't realize until four hundred years later, when his next miko was to arrive, just how much of a problem this was going to be…

* * *

-one hundred-something years ealier-

"Taiitsu-kun!!!" Suzaku exclaimed. "Why are _Seiryuu's_ shichiseishi being reborn??? It's my turn!"

The red peacock god was furious and confused. He'd been out looking at the land, just for the fun of it. And then he saw a human who glowed with blue light, the light of Seiryuu. When he checked closer he realized it was one of the Seiryuu shichiseishi, Nakago.

So he'd gone straight to Taiitsu-kun. She was the one in charge of having the shichiseishi reborn in time for the new miko's arrival. She was _supposed_ to be having his shichiseishi reborn, but instead Seiryuu's were. That wasn't good.

He had burst into her palace without warning, knocking over a few Nyan-Nyans in the process. In his haste he hadn't even noticed that Seiryuu was with Taiitsu-kun. In fact, the blue dragon, in human form of course, was smirking at him.

"You have a wait another hundred years, chicken boy," Seiryuu said, and Suzaku glared at him, having realized he was there. "Because of your screw ups last time around I get to go before you now."

"_My_ screw ups!" Suzaku exclaimed. "You're the one who couldn't wait and had to get his miko _then_. It was you who caused the problems!"

"And you are the one who brought Yui here in the first place," Taiitsu-kun said. "Thus, you are going to wait another hundred years. It is Seiryuu's turn right now."

"…That's not fair…" Suzaku said, pouting. It didn't do any good though. Taiitsu-kun just stared at him, her expression that of the angry, but caring mother. She was, after all, doing it for his own good.

"Isn't he going to have anything bad happen to him?" Suzaku asked. "I wasn't the _only_ one at fault!"

"Seiryuu no miko's wishes are severely limited this time around," Taiitsu-kun said.

"Yeah, you're not the only one being screwed over, chicken-boy," Seiryuu threw out, and Suzaku glared at him.

"At least I'm not an overgrown lizard," he shot back, storming out of the room angrily to wait the next hundred years for his seishi to start being reincarnated and his miko to show up.

Taiitsu-kun sighed. It was going to be a very long couple of hundred years.

* * *

* * *

**notes**

**1.** I don't particularly want to be fried by the ugly one...so she's the great Taiitsu-kun.


	2. chapter 1: heika's weekly meeting

**Author's Note:**

Well, this is my second serious try at fanfiction (my other FY fanfic here on fanfiction.net, Fushigi Ryuu, being the first). This one is a kind of cross between a "new miko" and a reincarnation fic. It takes place about 400 or so book years after the series, with a new miko and a bunch of reincarnated shichiseishi.

Here we start to meet some of the reincarnated shichiseishi...

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Fushigi Yuugi...though sometimes I wish I did. I made the emperor up...and these versions of the shichiseishi are mostly out of my own head, but otherwise I really didn't create the people in this chapter.

**Warning:**

No warnings for this chapter, but there will be shounen ai (guys who like guys) in the future, as well as Tasuki language.

* * *

**Atarashii Inochi**   
prologue: heika's weekly meeting

-present time, a meeting room in Konan imperial palace-

"Heika," chorused the staff as the emperor entered the room. It was time for his weekly meeting with his staff, which included both generals of the army, a few important courtiers, and the head of the ministers. Unfortunately, the head of the ministers and one of the generals couldn't make it that time. There was a young, but quite talented, minister filling in for him, and the other general was sufficient.

The five men (or boy in the case of the young minister, for he was fifteen years old) in the room bowed to the emperor as he made his way to his chair. He nodded to the others as he passed, with a look of surprise for the young minister taking the place of the head minister. All those in the room, not including the emperor of course, were equally bowed, with the exception of the one general present. He was slightly bowed, but not quite as much as the others, and no one seemed to mind this.

"Please, you know how much I hate all the formality," the emperor said, his gravelly voice able to carry well in the silence of the small room, despite the soft tone in which he said it. The middle-aged man settled down into his chair with a sigh, removing the little box-like hat that he had to wear as part of his imperial garb and running his hands wearily through his graying hair(2).

Most of the others in the room knew how the emperor, unlike other emperors before him, hated the formality required of him. He took every chance he could get to just be a man instead of an emperor, even when doing something that was integral to the running of the country. And, to be honest, the staff preferred it that way, except for the head minister, who was an old man and remembered the days when the emperor's father ruled.

The poor minister boy on the other hand, who had never been sent to meet the emperor in a setting that required less than the utmost in formality, was quite shocked by this. The general, noticing the distress in the boy's wide blue eyes, put his hand on his shoulder in a gentle manner. This calmed the young minister, who gave a quick smile in return to the general, who also happened to be his cousin and one of his best friends.

"Now, what do you have to tell me?" the emperor asked, leaning back in his chair comfortably.

"We are not making any progress on finding the crown prince a wife, Heika," the most senior courtier said. "He refuses to consider any of the young women in the harem. It is most distressing."

"Give him some time," the emperor said. "After all, he's still young."

"Heika!" the courtier protested. "He is approaching his thirtieth birthday! It's far past time when he should have married."

"And I'm fine," the emperor said stubbornly. "He's got some time left, so let him enjoy his freedom a little longer."

"Heika…" the courtier said, and the emperor gave him a stern glance, at which point he promptly dropped whatever he was about to say.

"Next?" the emperor asked, and the general shared a pointed look with one of the courtiers. The courtier made a small, panicked motion to the general, who sighed heavily.

"My scouts have reported a Kutou official, accompanied by a military escort, who crossed the border a few days ago," he said. "And a fast horse arrived earlier today with a note from the Kutou emperor, saying that one of the Seiryuu shichiseishi is on his way to our capital. They claim it is purely peaceful, though I fail to see why a Seiryuu shichiseishi would be coming to us."

"Thank you," the emperor said. "Keep an eye on this situation, and I will meet with the shichiseishi when he arrives."

"Hai," the general said.

"Anything else?" the emperor asked.

"Umm, I was told to inform you that there are the beginnings of a famine in the southern regions, Heika," the young minister piped up nervously. "My superior has caught it early though, and he says it shouldn't be a problem."

"Thank you, Ou-kun, wasn't it?" the emperor said.

"Hai, Heika," the young minister said quietly, surprised that the emperor remembered his name. "Ou Doukun(3)."

The rest of the meeting was short, sweet, and quite to business. The emperor hated spending more time than necessary on formal imperial business. He preferred to sneak out of the palace every now and then and find out how his land was doing in person to sitting around, listening to ministers, generals, and courtiers talk about things, even if they were quite important to the running of Konan.

Afterward, the emperor shooed the five members of staff out of his room and shut the door behind them. He wasn't trying to be rude; he just wanted to be alone to think. Despite his loose attitude toward running the empire, he really was a good emperor, and he liked to spend some time after his weekly meeting with his staff to think about what he'd learned.

The courtiers all had things to be tending to, especially the most senior one, who still thought he needed to find a wife for the crown prince. So all three of them hurried away, leaving young Ou Doukun, and the general, who was not too much older than his young cousin. Neither of them had anything pressing to tend to at the moment.

"Is he always like that?" Doukun asked. "I've only seen him in court, and he's always so…regal there."

"Almost always," the general replied. "Father claims he can't run the empire if he always has to act like he does at court."

"It's funny," Doukun said, with a slight laugh. "You'd think I'd know my own uncle better than this."

"I'm lucky to know him as well as I do," the general replied. "And I only know him this well because I'm a general. Otherwise I'd be like my sisters and know less about him than you do."

"I don't think I envy you being a prince, Sai," Doukun said. "I'm not sure if I could handle being any more noble than I already am."

Saihitei(4), second general of the Konan army, and youngest prince at seventeen years old, laughed. He glanced at his slightly shorter(5), and much more scholarly, younger cousin and nodded. "I think you're right Dou," he said, ruffling his "younger brother's" red hair(6) familiarly. "And believe me, I'm glad I'm not my aniki."

Everyone knew that Prince Saihitei did not want the throne. Everyone knew how much he thanked Suzaku-sama that he was the youngest royal child and not the eldest. He preferred his spot as the top swordsman in Konan and second general of the army (his second oldest brother having the title of first general) to anything involving running the country. After all, his skills with a sword were near legendary, and he knew it.

Just then, a young, though not as young as Saihitei, officer from the army came running up to the two, out of breath from searching the palace for the young general. He bowed to the prince, and to the young minister, who was well known as one of the emperor's many nephews and good friend to Saihitei. Then he turned to Saihitei.

"Excuse me, shogun," the young officer said. "But I was told to find you. There's a problem in the city."

Saihitei knew that it probably wasn't as bad as whoever had sent for him thought it was. It was probably just a minor incident, not anything that would require his presence. But if he didn't go then the officer in charge who had sent for him, whoever that was, would probably not be prompted to act, and whatever it was could build until it truly was something that would require his attention. So, he bid farewell to Doukun and followed the young officer to deal with the problem.

* * *

* * *

**notes**

**2.** *winces as she gets the bad image of an old Hotohori...* I didn't make Hotohori old, honest!! He's just not the emperor dammit!

**3.** Sooooooo, how many people remembered Chiriko's real name?? Hmm?? It's always the one I forget: Chiriko and Mitsukake. Oh yeah, in case you haven't noticed yet...this young minister of mine is Chiriko, even if he doesn't know it yet.

**4.** And another Suzaku shichiseishi who doesn't know what he is yet... See, I TOLD you I wasn't making Hotohori old!! Instead he's NEVER going to be the emperor, and he's not quite as beautiful...poor Hori-chan...

**5.** Yes, Chiriko actually got old enough to finish puberty this time!! And because he didn't get to last time, he gets to be one of the taller seishi this time around! (Hotohori being the tallest.)

**6.** This is real red we're talking about, like the same color as Suzaku's hair. And, just as a note, I've changed the appearances of some of the seishi a bit...like Chiriko's height and hair, and Hotohori's beauty. If you don't like it, remember, these are different lives for them, they don't have to be the exact same.


	3. boring classes

**Author's Note:**

Well, this is my second serious try at fanfiction (my other FY fanfic here on fanfiction.net, Fushigi Ryuu, being the first). This one is a kind of cross between a "new miko" and a reincarnation fic. It takes place about 400 or so book years after the series, with a new miko and a bunch of reincarnated shichiseishi.

This is the first appearance of our new miko for the story... She is a high school student, and I pretty much based her school on my own high school, because that's the only high school I have had experience with.

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Fushigi Yuugi...though sometimes I wish I did. All of the characters in this chapter are my own creation...especially Leigh.

**Warning:**

No warnings for this chapter, but there will be shounen ai (guys who like guys) in the future, as well as Tasuki language.

* * *

**Atarashii Inochi**   
chapter 2: boring classes

-a few days earlier, some random US high school-

"God, I hate this class," Leigh(7) Parker muttered to herself for about the eight time since the class had started. She was sitting in the American Literature part of this class, trying desperately not to fall asleep as the teacher droned on about Realism.

It was nearing the last quarter of the two hour class, which was a mixture of American Literature and American History. It wasn't a bad class…it was just that she didn't particularly care for either subject, and she'd been sitting there for over an hour already. It was long past time when she had stopped caring about paying attention and started trying to keep from yawning, and she was losing the battle more and more with every second.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of babble from the teacher, the bell rang, and Leigh sprang out of her seat, glad it was time for lunch. Her best friend cried out as she ran by her in her eagerness to get out of the room, not wanting to be left behind by her overly hyper friend. Of course, once in the hall, Leigh stopped and turned to wait for her friend so they could go to lunch together.

"What, though I'd leave you alone Terry?" Leigh asked, her eyes, almost pure blue at the time, sparkling with something that Terry couldn't quite identify.

"It wouldn't be the first time," Teresa, commonly known as Terry, replied. "After all, no one can stop you when you're in full hyper mode."

"But I'm not right now!" Leigh exclaimed. "That class drains too much of my energy. I swear, I'm going to die of boredom if I have to listen to one more thing about this or that literary period!"

"You'll survive," Terry said dryly as the two girl headed toward the commons. There they headed to Terry's car, a present from her parents for her sixteenth birthday. Then the two of them headed to Subway, as they did everyday, to get something for lunch.

The person behind the counter who took their order was a new employee, and the only one in the place who didn't know them. For some reason, he felt the need to stare at the two girls, whose features were, oddly enough, almost identical, but were completely different in almost every other way. One wouldn't think it was odd the way the two friends looked together, but for some reason it was.

Where Leigh was fairly tall, Terry stood just at five feet tall, though both were of fairly average weight. Leigh's hair was long and light brown, with the occasional streak of lighter blonde or red, and braided, where Terry's was cut short and dyed black. Her blonde roots were just starting to show. Leigh had blue eyes, a sign that she was exited and/or happy at the time, while Terry's were dark brown, and hidden behind thick glasses.

"Welcome to Subway, what can I get for you?" the young man asked. Leigh and Terry ordered their usual meals, and Leigh thought to herself that the young man would quickly learn that he didn't need to ask them what they wanted. She figured it would take him two weeks at the most.

Once they both had their meals and had paid the two girls headed back to school. They would have preferred to eat at Subway, not wanting to return to the school quite so soon, but neither one wanted to tempt fate. They had to be back in time for their next classes, and traffic was heavy just before lunch hour ended. It was easier to take their food back to school and not have to worry about the time.

"You know, life would just be a lot cooler if it was like a _good_ book," Leigh commented as the two girls ate their lunches in the cafeteria. Terry knew that the kind of book she was referring to was a fantasy, about the only kind of book besides romance that Leigh ever read. "You have to admit, all of this is _boring_."

"I know," Terry said. "But I don't think it's going to be happening any time soon."

"Yeah, that sucks," Leigh commented, and they continued to converse, eventually finishing their food and waiting for the bell to ring, even though they didn't really want to go back to class. It did happen though, and the two separated, having different classes at that time.

Leigh had science that period. It was physics, but their teacher had decided to be different, and she was having them do research projects for the class. So, they were spending some class periods in the library to research. Leigh, however, was already done with her research and was working on the paper itself at home, so she had nothing to do in the library.

It was then that she remembered that she was going to have a paper coming up in her history/literature class. She figured that while she was in the library she could start thinking about what to do for it. So, she headed for the shelves to look through books, hoping one of the books would give her some sort of inspiration for a paper topic.

While she was looking through the shelves she noticed a book that looked out of place. It looked old, and was bound oddly, which was quite strange for her school's library. The school itself was fairly new, and thus almost all of the books in the library were also fairly new. This book was definitely not fairly new.

Curiously, she took it off of the shelf and examined it. After a few moments of puzzling over it, she realized that it was either bound backwards, or she was holding it upside down. She couldn't quite tell, because the title was written in what she thought were Chinese characters and she wasn't quite sure which way was up for them.

She opened the book, only to find it to be more Chinese (or whatever they were) characters. She looked at the picture that was on the opposite page from the characters, which looked like some sort of bird. She shook her head, completely unable to understand the writing, and closed the book. She was about to put it back on the shelf, when the writing on the cover started to swirl, and reformed into English letters.

Leigh dropped the book suddenly, startled and sure she was seeing things. Then she blinked, rubbing her eyes and peering at the book again, only to still see English letters on its cover instead of the characters that were there before. It read "The Universe of the Four Gods(8)."

"Okay…" she said, thinking that something weird was definitely going on. But, her sense of curiosity, plus the excitement she felt at something not normal happening, prompted her to open the book. She did so, and it opened to a page near the beginning. The first line she saw read, "…the moment the page is turned, the story will become reality."

"Weird," she said, turning the page.

And then everything went red.

* * *

* * *

**notes**

**7.** This is not a self insert (I feel I must make this clear because the first half of my name is Leigh). I don't care if her name is quite similar to mine, she's not me. I just like this spelling of Leigh. I save my self inserts for omake, and the doll stories.

**8.** How the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho found its way into a US high school's library, I don't know. My thoughts on it are that since Suzaku chose Leigh as his next miko (oh, yeah, Leigh's the miko...), the book just kinda made its way to her.


End file.
